Cloaked in a Cloud of Bats

The time has come to finish a model that's been on my Shelf of Shame™ for more than a decade!

Ages ago, I had converted Konrad Von Carstein into a Vampire Counts battle standard bearer with the intention of extending his cloak of bats with 10mm metal Warmaster Fell Bats. I ended up using all of the bats I had for my Bat Swarms, so the project was shelved until I could get more. Once Warhammer moved into The Age of Sigmar, and vampire battle standard bearers were no longer a thing, the model went into the box of projects I'd probably never finish.

The new Vampite Lord with the bats in her hair gave me the idea that I could use the bats from her hair to fill out the cloak, and then build her with "normal" hair or a head swap. The models I had ordered ordered finally came in last week, so I decided to revive this project. The first step was to ditch the banner pole, and remove him from his base.

 

A problem arose, however, when I compared the bats in the new vampire's hair to the bats in the cloak– They were much too small, tiny in comparison to the cloak bats.

 

 

I headed to eBay, and quickly found a set of bat swarms from Cursed City. They were more appropriately sized, and were even attached to each other, which would make trailing them out from his cloak much easier.

 

 

The modern vampires are really tall, and this model is really squat in the legs, so I needed to add some height so he wouldn't look out of proportion. I decided to resculpt the leg and foot. I was also never happy with the shoulder pads, so I figured I may as well redo them, while I was at it. Come to think of it, the sword arm always looked too long, and the sword oversized, so I decided to just take his arms off and start from scratch.

 

 

I made a spacer out of putty to elevate him off of the base, and resculpted the leg greave and foot.

 

 

That simple extension of the leg put him more in line with the height of the other vampire heroes.

 

 

I sculpted a mound of earth under his foot, and began attaching the bats, starting at the base. I used one of the bats clinging to the pillar, carefully cut away and trimmed to fit onto the cloak.

 

 

Then, I worked my way around, selecting and fitting each bat into place to cover the gap at the bottom of the cloak. I even worked in a few of the smaller bats from the vampire's hair (and I've even come up with a cool idea for what to do with her).

 

 

I magnetized the base so I could put him on a round for Age of Sigmar, or a Square if I ever play Fantasy again (or if GW ever releases The Old World). The sculpted ground helps secure the model in place. I'll add ballast and details around the perimeter later.

 

 

Here's his new and improved cloak of bats, exactly as I had envisioned it so many years ago. It wouldn't have been possible with just a few static metal bats, so the fact that the project got delayed for so long was really a benefit because the Cursed City bats are so much more dynamic. I'm loving this guy!

 

 

'Til next time!